1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side visor that is mounted to a window frame of a side door of a cab-over-engine type automobile or a cab-behind-engine type automobile and is suitable for ventilation in a cabin.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as the side visor of this type, there has been known a side visor 1 that is mounted to a window frame 3a defining a door window 3b of a side door 3 of a cab-over-engine truck 5 and covers the front part and the upper part of the door window 3b from the outside as shown in FIG. 20. For this side visor 1, the door window 3b is closed openably by a window glass 3c. For the side visor 1 configured as described above, when the cabin is ventilated, the window glass 3c is lowered so that the upper edge of the window glass 3c is located slightly lower than the lower edge of the side visor 1. At this time, a relatively high-speed air flow directed from the front part of the side visor 1 toward the rear part thereof is produced along the outer surface of the side visor 1 by the running of the truck 5. Therefore, a negative pressure is developed in a front gap of the gap between the lower edge of the side visor 1 and the upper edge of the window glass 3c, and the air in the cabin is discharged to the outside of the vehicle through the front gap by the negative pressure.
For the above-described conventional side visor, the gap between the lower edge of the side visor and the upper edge of the window glass extends relatively long from the front part to the rear part of the side visor, which poses a problem that the air in the cabin discharged through the front gap of the gap between the lower edge of the side visor and the upper edge of the window glass intrudes again into the cabin through a rear gap of the gap between the lower edge of the side visor and the upper edge of the window glass.
To solve this problem, a side visor for automobile configured described below has been disclosed. In this side visor for automobile, a fitting part is mounted in an upper part of a window opening part of a vehicle body so as to be formed continuously from an upper edge over front and rear edges, and a visor main body part is formed so as to expand from the fitting part toward the outside. Also, an elastic sealing piece that is in contact with the window glass is projectingly provided at the lower edge of the inner surface of the visor main body part, so that an internal space surrounded by the fitting part and the elastic sealing piece is formed (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). In this side visor for automobile, a tunnel-like ventilation path leading from a front air intake port to a rear air outlet port is formed in the visor main body part, and draft ports communicating with the internal space are formed in the inner wall surface of the ventilation path. Three draft ports are provided in parallel in a grill plate welded to the inner wall surface. Each of the draft ports is open in a longitudinally long slantwise rectangular shape with the upside being directed to the rear, and a fin directed to the outside is projectingly provided at the rear at the front edge of each of the draft ports.
For the side visor for automobile configured as described above, since the elastic sealing piece that is in contact with the window glass is projectingly provided at the lower edge on the inner surface of the visor main body part, running wind can be prevented from intruding into the internal space of the visor main body part. In particular, since the internal space of the visor main body part is integrated with the cabin, ventilation can be provided efficiently. Also, since the tunnel-like ventilation path is formed in the visor main body part, and the draft ports are provided in the inner wall surface of the ventilation path, the draft ports become in a state of being covered with the outer wall surface of the ventilation path. As a result, the intrusion of rain water blown against the side surface of vehicle body can be prevented. Also, since the draft ports are not exposed to the outside of vehicle, the generation of wind noise caused by the draft ports can be prevented.
On the other hand, an automobile member for accelerating discharge of interior air has been disclosed in which two elongated outer and inner blades disposed in parallel so as to be separated from each other extend along a front pillar of automobile, and are mounted to the front pillar so as to be in parallel with a side glass, and two or more bridge plates for bridging the outer blade and the inner blade are mounted substantially in parallel with the ground (for example, refer to Patent Document 2). This automobile member for accelerating discharge of interior air is formed so that the front side of a gap between the two blades is wide and the rear side thereof is narrow, and that the gap between the two blades becomes narrower gradually toward the rear side. The outer blade is configured so that the thickness thereof increases gradually from the front side toward the rear side and becomes at a maximum at 40 to 50% of blade width, and thereafter the thickness decreases gradually again.
For the automobile member for accelerating discharge of interior air configured as described above, the wind passing through the front pillar intrudes between the two blades during the running, and the intruding wind passes through the gap between the two blades and is discharged immediately to the rear at a high speed. Therefore, during the time when the side glass is being opened, the discharge of air in the cabin is accelerated by the wind discharged at a high speed. Thus, the air in the cabin can be discharged to the outside of vehicle efficiently by a simple construction requiring no power and at a low cost.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-313231 (claim 1, paragraphs [0020], [0021] and [0014], FIGS. 1 to 3)    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-26212 (claim 1, paragraph [0033], FIGS. 1 to 3 and 7)
Unfortunately, for the conventional side visor for automobile described in Patent Document 1, the grill plate must be welded to the inner wall surface, which poses problems of increased number of parts of the side visor and increased man power for manufacturing the side visor. Also, for the conventional side visor for automobile described in Patent Document 1, the plurality of fins directed to the outside are projectingly provided at the rear at the front edges of the plurality of the draft ports, which also poses a problem that an eddy current is generated at the rear of each of the fins, which increases wind noise.
On the other hand, for the conventional automobile member for accelerating discharge of interior air described in Patent Document 2, the elongated outer and inner blades and the two or more bridge plates for bridging these blades are required, and these elements must be bonded to each other, which poses problems of increased number of parts of the discharge accelerating member and increased man power for manufacturing the discharge accelerating member. Also, for the conventional automobile member for accelerating discharge of interior air described in Patent Document 2, in the case where the discharge accelerating member is mounted to the front pillar of a passenger car, which is a cab-behind-engine type automobile, since the angle that the front pillar makes with the flow direction of air flow produced by the running of the passenger car is small, the height of the discharge accelerating member becomes small, and the width for drawing the air in the cabin from the discharge accelerating member becomes narrow, which poses a problem of decreased ventilation efficiency in the cabin.